Illinois and Chicago on Monday sued to block President Trump’s deployment of National Guard members to the city, after the administration moved to send in hundreds of troops.

Despite Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) objections, up to 300 members of the Illinois National Guard were federalized on Saturday by Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the lawsuit says.  

Trump also directed 400 federalized Texas National Guard members to be sent to Chicago, Portland and potentially other locations “where needed,” according to a memorandum filed Sunday in Oregon’s lawsuit fighting the deployment efforts there. 

Illinois and Chicago officials said foundational American principles limiting the president’s authority to involve the military in domestic affairs are “in peril.”  

“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the complaint reads.  

They argued that the deployment efforts reflect an unlawful attempt to infringe on the state’s sovereignty.  

The first move toward deployment came on Sept. 26 when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requested assistance protecting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the state.  

The agency alleged “coordinated assault by violent groups” that are “actively aligned with designated domestic terror organizations,” according to the lawsuit, which called the description “purported but fictional.”  

The officials are asking a judge to “immediately and permanently” bar implementation of the orders federalizing Illinois’s troops and mobilizing the Texas troops, plus “any subsequent effort to achieve the same end with the National Guard of the United States or other U.S. military.” 

Pritzker, who is believed to have White House aspirations, called Trump’s move an “invasion” Sunday night and urged Americans to speak out. On Monday, he said the effort was an “unlawful and unconstitutional deployment of military troops to our state.”

Chicago has been in Trump’s sights for months.

The president last week called Chicago a “big city with an incompetent governor, and he previously criticized the city as the “worst and most dangerous” in the world — including around Labor Day when a spike in shootings raised the specter he might send in the National Guard, despite local leaders’ insistence that crime is significantly down.   

On Sept. 6, the president shared an AI-generated image of Chicago’s skyline in flames, saying the city would soon find out “why it’s called the Department of WAR,” referencing his executive order to rename the Department of Defense. The image showed Trump depicted as a fictitious character from the film “Apocalypse Now,” alongside text reading “Chipocalypse Now.”  

Days later, DHS announced an immigration crackdown dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz,” ramping up ICE efforts in the city. 

The Hill requested comment from the White House.  

The National Guard has also been called up in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., where legal challenges have also been mounted. 

Updated: 11:21 a.m.